


Christmas Cupid

by MelodyLepetit



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff, magical mistletoe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:27:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21672196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelodyLepetit/pseuds/MelodyLepetit
Summary: Hermione and Severus have been dancing around each other seemingly angry and fed up with each other for years. Harry can’t stand it anymore and decides to play cupid.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Severus Snape
Comments: 1
Kudos: 158





	Christmas Cupid

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ladykardasi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladykardasi/gifts).



> DISCLAIMER:All recognizable characters belong to JK Rowling and associates. No copyright infringement intended.
> 
> Thanks to my team of betas for all the work they’ve done. Any remaining mistakes are mine and mine alone.

Harry Potter was fed up. For months—no, years, he’d been watching his best friend, Hermione, and the bravest man he ever knew, Severus, dance around each other. 

Harry knew things weren’t going to go well from their very first staff meeting. Professor Snape was seated in the corner of the room when he, Hermione and Neville walked through the door to take their seats. Minerva was seated at the head of the staff table with a pile of parchment in front of her. The rest of the staff was already seated. The three of them took the remaining open spots at the table and the meeting began. Everything flowed smoothly as it was introduced that Harry would teach Defence, Hermione would teach Muggle Studies, and Neville would start with the first through fourth year Herbology students and shadow Pomona for a year or two to finish his mastery. Once Pomona retired, Neville would take over the Professorship. 

Half-way through the staff meeting Minerva declared that she would finally be relinquishing the duties of Head of Gryffindor house, now that there was finally a Gryffindor alumni on staff. 

“I’m pleased to inform you all that Neville Longbottom has been named the new Head of Gryffindor.”

A scoff could be heard from the corner of the room where Severus sat as this announcement finished and then, “Surely there were more suitable candidates than Longbottom for the role of Head of Gryffindor.” 

“Oh, please, you just don’t like Neville because of his boggart! I’m sure he’ll be a wonderful Head of House, and you’ll just have to learn to work with him, Professor.” Hermione’s defence of Neville didn’t surprise anyone else at the table but Severus’s eyes narrowed and he looked between the two of them calculatingly. 

“Of course, if he has you to supply him with the correct answers, I’m sure he’ll do fine. Shall we set the table for six at the weekly Head meeting so that you can whisper in his ear?” 

“Really, Severus, that’s enough. This decision has already been made and Neville will be Head of Gryffindor. He can learn the ins and outs of his duties from Pomona as she’ll be staying on as Head of Hufflepuff until we can find a suitable replacement.” Minerva cut across the bickering between her Potions and Muggle Studies professors with the efficiency of someone who had been silencing children in her classroom for decades. 

Severus rose from his seat. “As I can see my input will not be heeded in this meeting, you can continue without me. Send me any pertinent information via Tik. I have an ingredient inventory to complete before the dunderheads arrive.” With a sneer on his face, the Potions Master swept from the staff room and the door banged shut behind him.

The rest of the meeting went smoothly with the discussion of timetables and Hogsmeade weekends finalised. Minerva rose when they finished to show the trio of Gryffindor Professors to their new staff quarters.

Five years after that very first fateful staff meeting, Harry Potter dashed into the Hogsmeade branch of Weasley Wizard Wheezes on the last Hogsmeade weekend before Christmas. He was supposed to be chaperoning the students as they went about their last outing before being sent home on the Hogwarts Express the following day. 

"Do you have it?" Harry asked Fred as he stood behind the counter. 

"Harry, my boy, of course I have it. When have we ever let you down?" Fred replied loudly. 

"Keep it down will you! Hermione is also chaperoning this Hogsmeade trip and I need to get this back to the castle without her suspecting anything."

Back at Hogwarts, Harry opened the box in his office and examined the contents. He sent a message to Neville via his new owl and asked the man to join him in his office for a cuppa before they sent all the children home for holidays. Before Neville could make it up from the Greenhouses to the third floor, Harry quickly affixed the Enchanted Mistletoe to hang just inside his office door. 

Sitting back at his desk, the green-eyed wizard settled in and hoped that Fred and George had remembered to properly enchant this piece of mistletoe to only respond to a certain bushy-haired friend of his and their snarky colleague. He didn’t much relish the idea of having to kiss one of his best mates in order to release him from the Weasley product. 

Ten minutes later, Neville arrived. “Have you got it?” he panted, slightly out of breath from having hurried to the third floor in his excitement. 

“Look up, Nev, see for yourself,” Harry replied

Neville froze in place and his eyes widened as he looked up and saw the mistletoe hanging above his head. “But I don’t feel anything, the magic hasn’t taken hold of me,” he said and moved further into the room to sit across the desk from Harry. 

“Shall we have a drink to celebrate?” Harry asked, lifting a bottle of Old Ogden's from his desk drawer.

“Sure, and then you can tell me the rest of your master plan,” Neville said as he accepted a tumbler slightly filled with firewhisky. 

An hour later the plan was clear to both of them. Neville would go down to the dungeons and get Severus. He’d tell him that there was a student in distress in Hermione’s office and that his presence was required due to the student being in Slytherin. Harry would at the same time sneak into Hermione’s office and plant the Mistletoe in the middle of the room but directly in the path from the door to her desk. Then he would go down to the Entrance Hall to meet Hermione as she returned from Hogsmeade. He would tell her that Snape was waiting in her office because he insisted on seeing her before the students went home. Then Hermione would come across Severus stuck under the Enchanted Mistletoe and be forced to work out what was bothering them. Hopefully over the holidays while the castle was free of students and other staff and when everyone returned in the new year the Potions Master and the Muggle Studies Professor would have finally made amends and the school could be a harmonious place once again.

* * *

Neville knocked on the door of the Potion Master’s office. He stepped back and waited. Severus probably didn’t want to be disturbed.

“Enter,” came the terse voice of the Potions professor through the door. 

“Hello, Professor Snape. Professor Granger has requested your presence in her office to deal with an errant student.” Neville had stopped stuttering in front of Snape years ago after being forced to deal with him on a weekly basis as Head of Gryffindor. 

“And why, pray tell, can’t Miss... excuse me, Professor Granger, bring the dunderhead down to my office?” 

“Apparently it was a matter of some delicacy and she was determined not to remove the student from her office and traipse across the entire castle.” Neville held firm. He could sense Severus’s reluctance. Hermione and Severus really were at each other’s throats more often than not these days, but like Harry, Neville was convinced that if the two of them actually spent any amount of real time together, they’d realise that it was not passionate animosity they felt for one another but just passion. 

“Alright Professor Longbottom, I’ll go up to the fourth floor immediately.” Severus rose from his desk and gestured for Neville to leave before him. Once out in the corridor Neville fell into step beside Severus and followed him out of the dungeons as far as the third floor where he turned toward his quarters.

* * *

“Hermione, Hermione!” Harry called her name as she escorted the last of the children in from their visit to the village. 

“What is it Harry? Don’t think I didn’t notice you skived off early from chaperoning the students.” Hermione looked a bit harried and he wondered what had happened during that last hour and a half in Hogsmeade. 

“Sorry, Hermione, I had a Christmas gift delivered to Hogsmeade for you and I wanted to wrap it and put it in your office before the night Express leaves and I’m off to the Burrow for Christmas.” Harry put on a suitably sheepish expression. “While I was there I noticed Snape waiting outside for you so I let him in. Didn’t figure there was any harm in him waiting in your office as opposed to lurking outside in the corridor.”

“Harry! You let him in my office. The git is probably going through my marking to make sure his precious Slytherins don’t get too low a grade. You know as well as I do that we can’t stand one another,” Hermione practically shouted at him and then rushed off in the direction of her office.

* * *

Severus knocked on Hermione’s office door, but got no response. Feeling put out because Longbottom made it sound important and now the impertinent minx was not opening her door, he pushed it open.

The room was empty. Walking further into the room proved to be a mistake as he felt magic swirl around him and he looked up to see Enchanted Mistletoe fastened to the ceiling above his head.

How dare she, Severus thought! Weasley Mistletoe was forbidden in the castle and now a Professor had some in her office? He’d take house points from her if that wasn’t a ridiculous notion to have about someone who had been his colleague for five years. His heart sped up as he heard footsteps coming towards the office.

Hermione saw that the door to her office was ajar as she rushed down the corridor. Stepping inside she saw Severus apparently frozen in the middle of the room. “Why don’t you have a seat Severus?,” she asked, as she closed the door to prying ears and eyes and moved towards her desk.

“Because, _Professor_ Granger, I appear to be stuck in this spot by your contraband,” he hissed.

“Contraband.” Hermione looked around clearly confused. “What contraband?” 

Her eyes followed his finger as he jabbed towards the ceiling above his head. “Mistletoe, and not just _any_ mistletoe, Enchanted Mistletoe.” 

“I haven’t been to the Weasley joke shop in months, and I would never bring something as childish as Mistletoe into my office, where I meet with students on a regular basis.” She spun around. 

“Why are you in my office at all, Severus? Harry didn’t tell me why you were waiting in the corridor when he let you in.” 

“Potter,” he spat. “what does he have to do with this? Longbottom came and told me you had an errant student here that required my presence for disciplinary action.” 

Huffing out a breath, Hermione plopped into the chair behind her desk. “Harry clearly lied to me and Neville is in on it.” She laced her fingers together and pondered him across the desk.

“Harry approached me not ten minutes ago in the entrance hall as I returned from the village with the last of the students and said that he’d placed a Christmas present in my office. It seems clear that he scarpered off from Hogsmeade early because he was planting Enchanted Mistletoe in my office.” 

“What does Longbottom have to do with all of this if Potter is responsible for this blasted mistletoe?” Severus asked.

“Harry and Neville have been hounding me for months, years really, to get over my animosity towards you. They seem to think that forcing us into close proximity and apparently forcing us to kiss to release you from the Enchanted Mistletoe will stop them having to listen to me rant about you for days on end.” 

“You go on about me in front of Potter and Longbottom for days on end?” Severus whispered. His mind was whirling. What if Potter was right, what if she did fancy him? He might just have to thank the two dunderheads when this was all over if things went his way. He’d been hoping for years that Hermione would notice him the way he’d noticed her during that very first staff meeting when Longbottom was made Head of Gryffindor, when clearly Hermione was the better candidate. 

“Well, it seems there is only one way to get you out of my office so that we can enjoy the rest of our holiday in peace,” Hermione said, rising from behind the desk and moving to stand in front of Severus. “We’ll have to kiss.” 

She leaned forward and placed her hand on his shoulder to steady herself, before pressing her lips to his. 

Severus was not about to let the opportunity pass him by. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close and deepening the kiss.

Her lips parted as she gasped, feeling his arms around her waist and the broadness of his chest. Something inside of Hermione clicked into place as his tongue darted out and traced along her own. Gentle and yet asking for more at the same time. 

They kept kissing until finally they needed to come up for air. Neither of them noticed that the Mistletoe had disappeared at the first touch of their lips., now Severus was pressing Hermione up against her desk, with a very prominent bulge in his trousers conveying just how much he had enjoyed their kiss.

“Perhaps, Hermione, this would be better continued in a more comfortable setting, say my quarters,” Severus purred.

All she could do was nod. Still stunned by the depth of their passion. Hermione took his hand and followed him swiftly through the castle to his chamber.

* * *

_January_

“Do you think it worked, Neville?” Harry asked as the two professors moved along the third floor corridor towards their rooms. 

“I don’t know, Harry, neither of them was at the station to see off the students or to welcome them back. Maybe we should check her office and make sure she didn’t just leave Snape there for three weeks.” 

Harry and Neville dropped their luggage off in their rooms and proceeded together to the fourth floor. All was quiet as they approached Hermione’s office. Nothing seemed amiss.

Hoping that they would find her office blissfully empty and not a raging Potions Master to be seen, they nudged the door open. 

Harry and Neville froze, not believing their eyes. Severus was indeed in Hermione’s office, thrusting into her as she lay splayed out on her desk. Their moans, which had been kept inside the room by some excellent charm work, now washed over the two shocked professors.

Hermione looked past Severus as she felt her wards flutter and stared directly into Harry’s eyes. 

“Thank you for the Christmas gift, Harry,” she said. “Now, kindly play cupid elsewhere.” 

With a wave of her wand, the men were pushed out into the corridor and the office door slammed shut. 

FIN

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Ladykardasi for the 2017 SSHG Giftfest over on livejournal.


End file.
